Personal details of 31 world leaders leaked in G20 security breach

[TheZephyrSong]

Xi Jinping ‘among 31 world leaders’ to have personal details leaked in G20 security breach

PUBLISHED : Monday, 30 March, 2015, 3:37pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 31 March, 2015, 1:21am

Staff reporter

G20 leaders and partner groups wave during a group photo at the annual G20 summit in Brisbane last November. Photo: ReutersPresident Xi Jinping was among 31 world leaders whose personal information was accidentally leaked ahead of the G20 summit last year by Australian authorities, the Guardian newspaper has revealed.

Passport numbers and visa status were among details of leaders attending the Brisbane summit in November that were accidentally sent by an employee of Australia's immigration department to the organisers of the Asian Cup soccer tournament.

Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Shinzo Abe, Joko Widodo and Narendra Modi were among the others whose details were leaked.

"The personal information that has been breached include name, date of birth, title, position, nationality, passport number, visa grant number and visa subclass," the Guardian said, quoting an email sent by the director of Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection to alert the Australian privacy commissioner's office.

The email said human error had been to blame for the leak, stating that an autofill function of Microsoft Outlook had directed the email to the wrong person.

The recipient notified the immigration department about the accident, and deleted the email and emptied their deleted items folder, the email stated according to the Guardian, adding it was "unlikely that the information is in the public domain".

According to the newspaper, the immigration department also recommended that that the leaders not be made aware of the breach of personal information.